Everyone hates watching ads, but what if you got rewarded for watching brain numbing adverts? If it sounds like a good idea to you, then you’re not the only one that thinks it. Start-up internet TV company HitBliss, are using the novel idea to compete with the likes of Netflix, Hulu Plus and Amazon.

Watch movies for free. Well kinda

But unlike the standard paid services, you can watch HitBliss even if you’re out of cash. The service lets you watch ads and in turn, earn cash that you can use to pay for TV shows and movie rentals.

The idea has been in development for four years and is currently in the beta private testing stage. The idea is to let the consumer decide if they want to earn their content or pay and watch it as in the traditional model.

HitBliss has two sections – HitBliss Earn which lets viewers build up a cash pot by viewing advertising, taking part in surveys and playing games. The company estimate that working, i mean watching 6 minutes of ads will pay for a movie rental. The service comes as a software download you need to install first, that takes care of the counting.

Advertising income made is then split between Hitbliss and the content providers. If you’re thinking of just running the ads and leaving the room, think again.

The service will make you verify that you are actually watching those interesting ads, and the system has a way to make sure you only watch what you’re actually interested in. If you don’t like an ad, message or brand then you can skip it and/or change the category. Once you get into the swing of the system, you will get a trust score that makes the checks and verification less frequent, that is, so long as you keep being good.

Once cash has been accumulated, viewers head to the HitBliss Store where that get to spend the hard earned Wonga. When you get to watch your rentals they are thankfully free of any advertising, so you do get a break from the constant brainwashing. If you don’t want to watch ads, you can just pay for credit like other pay to watch systems.

Speaking about the new service, co-founder of HitBliss Sharon Peyer said, “Consumers are tired of having to be interrupted with ads whenever they’re trying to read news or watch a TV show or a movie.”

Further explaining the win-win system, she said, “Users can consume targeted messages in a playlist — people have called this Pandora for advertisers — and in exchange for their time and attention, they are compensated with earned cash.”

But will the content be any good you ask? Yes according to Sharon, “We have transactional distribution rights, which means we have the exact same rights that iTunes, Amazon, any transactional service would have. The difference is with HitBliss, consumers can use the earned cash to pay for content. Pricing is the same.”

The trouble with watching television shows and movies on the web is trying to finding them. Although you can search the different providers and sources of official TV streams available such as iTunes, Amazon, Netflix, Amazon, Hulu along with some lesser known providers. The problem is that the average viewer wants an easy life and not the prospect of searching umpteen sites or apps for the show/movie they want.

Lets be honest, doing it this way may take longer than the episode, show or movie lasts! So how do you find that streaming content easily? The answer is to use a site that aggregates or taps into the API of each provider and outputs the multiple sources on your screen ready for you to watch, rent or buy.

These sites are probably the easiest way to find who is streaming what and for what cost, if you can buy, rent or both. Although none are perfect (yet), and some only work for movies, they all make life easy which is what the average couch potato wants, right?

Moreflicks – Even though it’s not the slickest, this site covers a good selection of streaming services (others don’t), both TV shows and movies (which some don’t), and you can select by Country, which is handy as many content providers have different media deals depending on location. So on to the website, you type in a title and the website retrieves information and a selection of streaming links for you to view, buy or rent. You can also filter by Oscar Winners, Most Popular, Arriving Soon and Expiring Soon amongst others.[More information..]Moreflicks searches:Netflix, iTunes, Hulu, Crackle, Vudu, Fox and iPlayer.App available? No

Watchily – A good site because you can filter the cost of your entertainment. Search results clearly label the costs, from free upwards. Viewers can also filter searches by content rating, and by genre to find that perfect title.[More information..]Watchily searches:Netflix, Redbox Instant, Amazon, iTunes, Hulu, HBO Go, Showtime Anytime, Cinemax Go, Comcast XFINITY and Vudu.App available? No

Can I Stream It This handy website launched this year features a simple search bar. By typing in the name of a movie or show users are presented options from streaming, rental, purchase and even physical services (remember DVD rental?). Results are fed from a number of popular streaming services, you can also create an account and save searches. A mobile app of Can i stream it is also available.[More information..]Can I Stream It searches:Netflix, iTunes, Hulu, Youtube, Hulu Plus, Amazon, Crackle, Streampix, HitBliss, Epix, Redbox Instant and Snagfilms.App available? Yes, available for iPhone, iPod, android and Windows Phone.

Go Watch It lets you search for any content but is more geared toward movies than shows. Plus, apart from streaming options it also takes into account cable and theater availability, as well as DVD releases.[More information..]Go Watch It searches: Netflix, Redbox Instant, Hulu, Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, Movies On Demand, Snagfilms, Youtube, SundanceNow, Google Play, Xbox Live, WolfeOnDemand and Fandango.App available? Yes, available for iPhone, iPad and iPod

Watch It Stream is another simple search service that also includes users curated lists for a little variety. Also comes with a special Chrome extension to search for media. If you sgn up you can add your own lists for others to enjoy.[More information..]Watch It Stream searches: Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime Instant, Vudu,and iTunes.App available? No

Jinni – Describes itself as a taste engine and concentrates on marathon film viewing by suggesting lists of movies that all have a connection to your tastes. Recommendations are made based on your taste profile. It also lists online availability of your chosen selections for both streaming and physical rental.[More information..]Jinni searches: Netflix, Amazon, iTunes, Blockbuster, LoveFilm,App available? No

Instant Watcher – A popular website for Netflix users that grabs the all the streaming titles from the instant library. Best used whilst you are logged into your Netflix account and offering many ways to search and filter the content, and all results have a play or queue link along with additional information.[More information..]Instant Watcher searches: Netflix.App available? Yes available for Android

Fan TV – Also known as fanhattan, this website and iOS app works as a title aggregator. You search for a title, get lots of information and artwork, then the service searches for the title from 29 providers.[More information..]Fan TV searches: Netflix, Amazon, iTunes, HBO, Hulu, Cinemax, Fandango, Xfinity, Crackle, YouTube, NBC, The CW, ABC, ABC Family, PBS, Lifetime, truTV, CBS, Comedy Central, Syfy, Nickelodeon, USA, MTV, Fox, Adult Swim, Cartoon Network, Vudu, Blockbuster Video, Playstation Network.App available? Yes available for iPhone,iPad

AllMovie – Good movie recommendation website that offers online and offline providers as well as information about the films. Search by genre, actor etc. The website also offers reviews and showtimes as well.[More information..]AllMovie searches: Netflix, iTunes, Blockbuster, Best Buy.App available? No

Flickathon – Calls itself a social movie recommendation engine. The inspiration came from a task that movie lovers regulalry do. Watch marathon sessions of films. When you choose a film, many more will get recommended and you can create your own marathon lists.[More information..]Flickathon searches: Netflix, Amazon, iTunes.App available? No

Foundd – A recommendation engine that finds movies for you based on your individual taste. Users can sign up with Facebook, Twitter, or email; intelligently learns your taste and from others with similar tastes to continually improve suggestions; not limited to just movies; easy to maintain watchlist for you or a group; can save filters or searches; very easy ratings interface; iTunes app available.[More information..]Foundd searches: Netflix, iTunes.App available? Yes available for iPhone, iPad.

GetGlue – A social engine of TV and moovies. Think of Facebook just for TV where you can create a personalized feed based on your interests, chat with friends and let people know what you are watching right now.[More information..]GetGlue searches: Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Instant Video, iTunes, HBO GO, CBS, FOX, FX, AMC.App available? Yes available on iPad, iPhone.

WhichFlicks – A website that helps you find which movie to watch. You can use a set of complex filters such as Ratings, Date, Genre, Appropriate Audience, and Cast to narrow down the search. Then you can see various sources for availability.[More information..]WhichFlicks searches: Netflix, Metacritic, Amazon Instant Video, iTunes and Redbox.App available? No

Findseri.es – This website finds your chosen TV series (they also have a movies section) and deliver results of where you can watch it instantly. Options to choose your Country are also included.[More information..]Findseri.es searches: Netflix, iTunes, HuluApp available? No

Zinc.TV Another site that makes it easier to watch TV online. Zinc.TV claims to have cataloged and have links to over 825,000 online videos. The service has a play button that links out to sources such as Netflix and Amazon Video, where you can rent or purchase the video and also links to free sources.[More information..]Zinc.TV searches: Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, HBO Go, CBS, Vudu, Crackle, ABC, Fox, ABC Family, TBS, TNT, A&E, Adult Swim, Animal Planet, Cartoon Network, CNET, Comedy Central, CW, Discovery, Food Network, SyFy, Spike, VH1App available? No

As you can see, compiling media information and suppliers in one place is big business even though no one site has quite perfected it yet, you can see the potential is there when someone gets it right. Having the ability to quickly search a range of online streaming websites from Netflix, Youtube, Hulu, Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, HBO, Crackle amongst others for digital or physical deliveryat the best price is very useful.

But with the streaming companies playing hardball and not giving third party developers full access to their API’s (Netflix are even shutting there API down), and with content deals starting and finishing all the time, the information is never thoroughly up to date. But these websites and apps do make life easier. Check out our streaming aggregators directory so you can always keep up to date with any new providers.